REGION: State appeals court upholds LA city's dispensary ban

Decision could have widespread significance, attorney says

In a legal blow to medical marijuana advocates, a state court
ruled last week that local governments can ban medical marijuana
dispensaries from setting up shop in their jurisdictions.

The state's Second District Court of Appeal said in its decision
that the city of Claremont in Los Angeles County could ban
dispensaries without violating the state's medical marijuana laws.
Those laws include the 1996 Compassionate Use Act, which legalized
marijuana for medical use, and the 2004 Medical Marijuana Program
Act, which lets people cultivate marijuana collectively.

That is because neither law "compels the establishment of local
regulations to accommodate medical marijuana dispensaries,"
according to the court's ruling.

The Sept. 22 opinion could have wide-ranging implications for
cities and counties statewide, including San Diego County and other
cities in the region that are drafting new ordinances to regulate
medical marijuana dispensaries, said an attorney involved in the
case.

"What this court said is that if you are arguing that a city
cannot ban a dispensary, that argument is no longer valid," said
Jeffrey Dunn, a San Diego attorney who represented the city of
Claremont in the case.

Several cases are moving though the state's court system
addressing various legal questions on what cities and counties can
and can't do to regulate dispensaries.

San Diego County officials and medical marijuana activists said
they are especially watching a case involving the city of Anaheim
in Orange County.

Some medical marijuana activists say they believe the county is
closely following the Anaheim case because the supervisors here
want to permanently ban medical marijuana dispensaries, not
regulate them.

Supervisor Pam Slater-Price has said she would be willing to ban
dispensaries in the county. Other supervisors have declined to say
whether they would support such a ban, but the majority of the
board has been outspoken opponents of the state's medical marijuana
laws.

In 2006, the supervisors filed a lawsuit to overturn the state's
1996 medical marijuana law. The supervisors unsuccessfully
challenged the law all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which
declined to hear an appeal in May.

Earlier this month, the supervisors extended a temporary ban on
dispensaries through August 2010. Some medical marijuana foes
called for an outright ban on the establishments, which they
contend promote teen drug use and attract crime into
neighborhoods.

The Anaheim case, which was heard last week by the Fourth
District Court of Appeal, has attracted widespread attention among
medical marijuana activists and local governments. If the court
upholds the ban, it may encourage other cities and counties to ban
dispensaries, medical marijuana activists say.

A ruling is expected in the Anaheim case within 90 days.

Joe Elford, an attorney with the medical marijuana advocacy
group Americans for Safe Access, said the two cases are different.
That's because the Anaheim law not only bans dispensaries, but
makes it a crime to operate them.

"Unlike the Anaheim case, the Claremont case does not involve
criminal penalties ... so I don't think it will impact the Anaheim
case," Elford said.